Chicago renters, condo buyers could get protections

Daley proposal would increase conversion warning from 4 to 9 months

September 02, 2010|By John Byrne, Tribune reporter

Renters and condominium buyers in Chicago would get more protection from developers under a plan unveiled Thursday by Mayor Richard Daley, who acknowledged that it comes too late to protect people who had problems during the real estate boom that preceded the recession.

The proposal, which Daley will introduce at Wednesday's City Council meeting, would increase the forewarning developers have to give renters if they plan to convert apartments into condos from four months to nine months. It also would require landlords to give renters at least $1,500 to relocate if their building is going to be converted.

Developers also would have to give condo buyers a standardized "disclosure summary" about taxes and assessments on the property and the condition of the building before purchase, Daley said.

Though developers aren't doing much conversion work now because of Chicago's glut of condos and the depressed housing market, Daley said the proposal will be important when the city's real estate market heats up again.

"It's going to come back, and we want to be able to learn by mistakes, let's be realistic, things that did not take place in order to protect people, simple as that," the mayor said during a news conference at a park in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood on the Northwest Side.

"These proposals will serve residents and neighborhoods now, and when the housing market begins to rebound, so there's no better time to enact them into law," Daley said.

The proposed ordinance is based on the recommendations of the Condominium Conversion Task Force. The mayor appointed the group of aldermen, real estate agents, developers and renters' rights advocates in 2007 to recommend stronger standards. The group released its report Thursday.